Designing Backwards

North Carolina and the United States: Creation and Development of the State and Nation: 8th Grade

Theme: Using NC’s history to overcome struggles faced today.

Essential Question: How does the government and social participation affect society and change?

Topic: North Carolina and US democracy and citizen involvement

Learning Targets:

Students will identify democratic ideas in the government at the local, state, and national levels.

Students will identify democratic ideas in NC’s past and the US’s past by looking at historical documents

Students will understand and reflect on the struggles citizens faced when trying to get their rights

Students will understand the various opinions on the government expressed by citizens

Students will identify oppressed groups and how they are oppressed

Students should be able to identify civil rights movements that occurred at the state and national levels.

Topical Questions:

Where can you see democratic ideas and themes in the government at the local level? The state level? The national level?

In what ways is democracy a part of North Carolina’s past? The United States’ past? Look at historical documents (e.g. The Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights, NC Constitution) to answer this question.

How did people’s feelings about government differ from one another? Did everyone like the national government?

How is democracy not granted to some groups? Think about slavery, women’s rights, and oppression. What did people do to try to gain more rights?

What civil rights movements have occurred in NC? In the US?

Social Studies Literacy Standards

Key Ideas and Details

ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.2
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.

ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.3
Identify key steps in a text’s description of a process related to history/social studies (e.g., how a bill becomes law, how interest rates are raised or lowered).

Craft and Structure

ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary specific to domains related to history/social studies.

The new essential standards for eighth grade will integrate United States history with the study of North Carolina history. This integrated study helps students understand and appreciate the legacy of our democratic republic and to develop skills needed to engage responsibly and intelligently as North Carolinians.

Students will embark on a more rigorous study of the historical foundations and democratic principles that continue to shape our state and nation. Students will begin with a review of the major ideas and events preceding the foundation of North Carolina and the United States. The main focus of the course will be the critical events, personalities, issues, and developments in the state and nation from the Revolutionary Era to contemporary times.

Students will analyze the relationship of geography, events and people to the political, economic, technological, and cultural developments that shaped our existence in North Carolina and the United States over time. Local and federal history will be studied.

The five strands of this standard are: history, geography and environmental literacy, economics and financial literacy, civics and governance and culture. These strands will be integrated and woven together as they are covered.

There are two types of essential standards – one that identifies the skills that students should master during the course of the year and another that identify the knowledge and understandings. The skills should be taught within the context of applying knowledge and understandings of the creation and development of North Carolina and the United States.

C&G.1.2: Evaluate the degree to which democratic ideals are evident in historical documents from North Carolina and the United States (e.g. the Mecklenburg Resolves, the Halifax Resolves, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Bill of Rights and the principles outlined in the US Constitution and North Carolina Constitutions of 1776, 1868 and 1971).

C&G.1.3: Analyze differing viewpoints on the scope and power of state and national governments (e.g. Federalists and anti-Federalists, education, immigration and healthcare).

C&G.1.4: Analyze access to democratic rights and freedoms among various groups in North Carolina and the United States (e.g. enslaved people, women, wage earners, landless farmers, American Indians, African Americans and other ethnic groups).

C&G.2.1: Evaluate the effectiveness of various approaches used to effect change in North Carolina and the United States (e.g. picketing, boycotts, sit-ins, voting, marches, holding elected office and lobbying).